Sleeves for potted plants are typically formed using two mating webs, with the final web advance being made by a feed blade which always remains between the two webs and just upstream of the point at which the webs are sealed together. After two webs are sealed together, the blade strokes forward to advance the web and then retracts before the next seal cycle. With this typical method, the webs remain in the same plane throughout the operation and seals are made across the web at acute angles to form sleeves which are open at both ends, with one end being larger than the other end.
With the typical prior technique, the large opening of each, sleeve is adjacent to the small opening of the adjacent sleeve. In those cases where the webs are run on edge, half of the sleeves would have the large opening pointed up and half of the sleeves would have the large opening pointed. This requires further manipulation of half of the sleeves in order for the sleeves to be filled with potted plants while being moved in the same direction, such as vertically.